Friday, December 22, 2017

Welcome back for the final day of the Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along! This quilt-along has been so much fun for me because I've been able to keep the final quilt a secret until today! So without further ado, here's a look at the finished Sweet Shoppe quilt!

Ta-da! It's a table runner with colorful candy rows interspersed with strips of sweet stitching. It's amazing to me how simple shapes and bright colors can combine to create a quilt that's bold and graphic but still very sweet. Don't you just love quilting?!

Let's jump right into the instructions for the final day:

You'll need to gather:

the rows of candy from Day 9 (you should have 15 of them)

You'll also need to cut:

Background fabric:

14 strips 1½" x 18½"

Binding fabric:

4 bindings strips 2¼" x 42"

Backing fabric:

1 panel 26" x 60"

Assembling the quilt:

Here's a diagram of the Sweet Shoppe quilt to help you out with your assembly.

Lay out the 15 rows of candy and 14 white strips in alternating positions. Pay particular attention to the orientation of the ribbon candy rows, these are the rows that will be located in between the lollipop and peppermint rows, and the rows on either side of the minty fresh row in the center. To assemble my quilt, I laid it out on a table and then stitched it together row by row, pressing all seam allowances toward the white strips. Your finished quilt top should measure 18½" x 52½".

Here's a tip to help you keep your work square. Make light pencil marks on the length of the white strips within the seam allowance and appropriately spaced for the candy row that you will be sewing to it. Then align these marks with the seams on the candy row before pinning and sewing. For example, when joining a white strip to the lollipop row, make your first mark at 3½" in from the edge (to allow for seam allowance) and then at 3" intervals thereafter.

That's it for assembly! Love row quilts—they're such a snap to put together!

Finishing your Sweet Shoppe quilt:

1. Layer quilt top, batting and backing. Baste.

2. Quilt as desired. To stabilize the quilt, I machine quilted in the ditch on either side of the white strips and in between the lollipop blocks using white thread. Then I machine quilted ¼" inside both edges of each white strip. And finally, I used red size 8 perle cotton to big stitch quilt down the center of each white strip.

3. Join the 4 binding strips into one length and use it to bind the quilt.

Some Thoughts on Finishing Your Sweet Shoppe quilt:

The quilt was pretty before I added the red perle cotton, but I think the red stitching is really the cherry on top! If you'd like to add the stitching to your quilt, you can also substitute 2 strands of embroidery floss for the perle cotton.

But don't feel limited to finishing your quilt the way I did—there are countless ways to personalize this project. You could do decorative machine stitching or a narrow quilted border pattern of wavy or swirly lines or ribbons within the sashing strips. The larger blocks are an opportunity for some fun machine quilting—I can imagine spirals in the lollipops and maybe a small cross-hatch in the wrapped sweets. Even the red and green peppermint stick rows could be embellished with complementary colored diagonal lines stitched between the HSTs. And if you really want to take the Sweet Shoppe theme over the top, you could stitch little bows to the lollipop sticks or the narrow parts of the wrapped sweets and sew tiny buttons to the centers of the minty fresh and peppermint blocks. Just have fun!

I'd love to see your finished quilts, so please tag me @JenDalyQuilts if you post them on Facebook or Instagram, or send a picture to me via email: jendalyquilts@gmail.com. And if you haven't been able to quilt along this year, but you'd like to make your own Sweet Shoppe quilt, the complete pattern will be available in my Etsy shop after Christmas.

Thank you all so much for following along with this year's Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along! Happy Holidays and, as ever, Happy Quilting!

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Welcome back for Day 9! After 8 days of piecing blocks and half-square-triangles (and I think we can all agree that we're experts at making HSTs by now!) we're finally going to start assembling our quilts!

Today we're making rows! I just loved making a row quilt for last year's quilt-along, so I thought we'd give it another try this year with a different shape and size.

6. Lay out 3 Wrapped Sweet blocks, 2 white 1" x 3½" rectangles and 2 white 1½" x 3½" rectangles in a row as follows. Note that the 2 white 1" x 3½" rectangles should be placed on the outside edge of each row and the 2 white 1½" x 3½" rectangles should be placed between the 3 blocks. Join the pieces and press seam allowances toward the white rectangles. Repeat to make a second wrapped sweet row.

Friday, December 15, 2017

Welcome back for Day 7 of the Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along! Today we're making peppermint blocks!

These blocks are actually just like the minty fresh blocks that we made on Day 5, but they're red and white and spinning in the opposite direction. We're also making twice as many as we did on Day 5, but because it's the weekend, we've got an extra day to get them done. Ready? Here we go!

Wednesday, December 13, 2017

It's Day 6 of the Sweet Shoppe Quilt-Along and today we're making wrapped sweets!

On day one, I suggested that you label your 2 favorite red fabrics as red print #2 and red print #3 and your favorite green fabric as green print #3. The wrapped sweet blocks are the biggest in the project, so we'll be using your favorite fabrics (as labeled) to make them today.

You'll need to gather:

2 red print #2 3½" x 3½" squares

4 red print #2 1½" x 3½" rectangles

2 red print #3 3½" x 3½" squares

4 red print #3 1½" x 3½" rectangles

2 green print #3 3½" x 3½" squares

4 green print #3 1½" x 3½" rectangles

48 white 1½" x 1½" squares

To make your wrapped sweet blocks:

1. On the wrong side of the 48 white 1½" x 1½" squares, use pencil to lightly draw a diagonal line from corner to corner.

2. Layer a marked white 1½" square atop a red print 3½" x 3½" square with right sides together as shown. Stitch the pair together exactly on the drawn line.